Note: the deadline for this week's assignment is extended to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, thanks to Murphy’s Law of Blogging, which is, “If anything can go wrong with a link, it will.”
Read this article co-authored by two lieutenant colonels in the Air Force at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/pine.pdf on what can go wrong in communication. What part of the article interested or surprised (or amused) you the most? Describe a communication you have either engaged in or observed that illustrates any of the four laws or the four corollaries identified by Osmo Wiio.
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I had no idea that the air force did so much work on communicating effectively, although after thinking it over, it makes perfect sense they try so hard. I have a friend that kind of reminds me of law number 4 because she talks a lot. She often jumps from one subject to the other without effective transitions and it sometimes is difficult to follow where she is going from one story to the next. It is also one of the things I find most enjoyable about her too, though. It is usually pretty funny to listen to her speak!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteCommunication is very important in every aspect of our lives. I believe less is better. Get to the point and be direct. You don't have to go on and on in your communication. After the first few sentences you don't get your point across you probably never will. You lose a person's interest when you keep on talking. I have a co-worker who talks and talks I swear just to hear her self speak. After a few minutes of listening to her I tend to tune her out. I tend to have selective hearing. In a business setting you need to get to the point right away or your going to lose clients. In the military it is extremely impotant to have good communication skills when lives are at stake.
The most interesting to me about his article is a good communication. I believe that communication is very important in our everyday lives. Corporations and organizations need leaders who can communicate effectively with their people, helping guide them by the many pitfalls that can stand as obstacles to the goal or interact to get the mission accomplished, but not everyone is a leader. Those who hold leadership positions are not necessarily effective in their roles. We must always work towards improvement by asking the message if it is not clear to us. Remember, we need to ask our self these questions; could we do it better? Are there other ways to help clear the communication confusion? How do other people interpret the message when they receive it? What can impact on them? For future leaders, we need to keep mind that the most important to examine is our own communication abilities and get it simple. However, to be an effective leader, we must work hard to master these skills to overcome the complex process of communication. Remember the more concise the communication is, the less difficulty for the receiver to understand the communication. For example when you are writing a message to someone, you do not have to give a lot of detail to get to the point. Today, people lose their interest by reading a long detailed and unclear message.
ReplyDeleteI like Murphy’s Law #3, in our everyday lives, there is always someone who knows things better than what you try to put in your message. Too often we are guilty of anticipating what someone is about to say and immediately engage our thought process in our reply. I have a friend who talks all the time to me by changing one subject to the next and it makes it difficult to follow the conversation. I am assured to hear him talk to me almost every time when we meet. Sometimes, after a few minutes talking to him, I tend to lose attention on him. Now days, in the business market, you need to keep things very simple and get to the point right away so you do not lose the customers/client’s interest.
Murphy stated in the article that “There is always the potential for misinterpretation, misperception, typographical errors, or other barriers to effectively communicate. No matter how we might try, our efforts will not always succeed”.
I think my favorite part of this article was Law 3. It is very true that people anticipate a conversation while they’re having it instead of listening to the actual conversation. It is impossible to effectively communicate when the other isn’t even paying attention. Everyone knows communication is more than just words but it interested me to hear someone else put the way Osmo Wiio says it in that article.
ReplyDeleteAn example I could give of Law 3 is as follows: That usually when in a heated conversation with someone, you expect them to disagree with you so instead of focusing on their points people generally have already found the rebuttal they will use to prove their own point. It makes it difficult to ever really be ‘open minded’ because most are too busy thinking they already know what the other person is going to say. I think that it happens most with religious debates, political debates and between different generations.
I know personally that most arguments I have had when I was at home were unnecessary but my parents didn’t listen long enough to hear what I was saying and vice versa. I expected them to be difficult and so they were. Also, my best friend and I have opposite political views and with this last election we almost lost our friendship. Instead of listening to each others beliefs and realizing that everyone’s entitled to their opinion we turned off our ears and fired back. It took a little while to realize we weren’t even listening to each other and we finally found that we were both right and wrong in different ways. Communication is difficult even with someone who knows you the best let alone with complete strangers.
One situation that I can think of that I would like to share goes well with “if communication can fail it will.” I believe that the more important the situation is that calls for the communication the more likely it is to fail, well at least with my luck anyway. When I was close to being sixteen and able to get my driver’s license I had to call the state and set up a time to take my road test. It is in this conversation that they will ask which testing location you would like to test at. I had told them I wanted to test at the Anoka location. The operator then gives you your confirmation code to present to the testers on your scheduled date. I was so excited to get my license that day and couldn’t wait to be free of my mom’s backseat driving. When we got to the testing station I was informed that according to my confirmation number I had scheduled for the Arden Hills location. Somewhere in the communication the lady thought that was where I had wanted to test. This was a very sad day, however I was able to re-schedule and get it the next day.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of this article is Murphy's Law #3. I talk on the phone with about 60 people a day and about 30% of those people fall in to that category. I recently had a communication issue with a coworker. To schedule a trade of your hours with someone at my job you must post it on the company's intranet. I asked if my coworker wanted the hours and she said "Yes, go ahead and put it in". So, I posted the hours, and submitted it since she now knew that the posting was up. I then seen her the next day and she asked me again, in passing, "Did you put it in"? I told her yes, I put it up yesterday. Then two days later she sends me a text saying "I thought you put the request in". When I told her that I had, she stated that someone else had taken the hours. In short, when she asked if I "put it up", she meant actually putting her name on it as the accepting agent taking the hours. I just meant that I posted the hours. I never would have thought about putting her name on the request because 1. I don't even know her last name and 2. with as many rules as they have, I figured it was something you could get in trouble for. Any other time I've trade hours with someone, they also put their own name on the request.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to me when the article discussed how different people look at the same information but all of them perceive the information differently. This stood out to me because I believe it is very true, and very important for people to realize that we do perceive things differently and to keep an open mind when someone has taken information and used it differently than you would. I liked law 4, the more information there is, and the more difficult it is to succeed. I really agree with this, an example would be my anatomy and physiology class. When going through the power points and the chapter information, my instructor would put everything on the power points weather we needed it or not, and it got to be information overload. I would find myself making note cards to study for our tests and end up with 250 note cards for one test. After taking the test, realize that only ¾ of what was on my notes was actually on the test. So again, I think it is important to just stick to the information you really need so that people do not spend their time on the things that are not as important.
ReplyDeleteI found the entire article very interesting. Like someone else said, I didn’t realize that the Air Force places so much emphasis on communications, though after thinking about it, I realize that communications are a very important thing to stress.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with all the laws, to an extent, but the one that really hit home with me was Law # 3. All too often, I find myself finishing, or trying to finish the sentences of other people. It’s not often that I’m wrong, but there are always times when I THINK I know what they mean, when in reality, they are thinking along entirely different lines. Just the other day, this situation came up with my mother. I thought that I knew what she was going to say, and I thought that it was a personal attack against me. She stopped me though, and pointed out that I did NOT know what she was trying to say, and that what I thought she was saying was, in fact, the opposite of what she meant. It is very important for people to remember to just be quiet and listen sometimes.
I enjoyed this article and it made me think about a large organization like the Air Force.
ReplyDeleteThe leaders all need to be sending the same message with their communications because of the fact there are approximately 350,000 members currently in the US Air Force. These folks all need to follow the same rules, same goals, no matter what base they are stationed at.
A good example of law #2 is, recently the hospital I work for sent about 25 of the top management to a two day seminar. The speaker was a motivational speaker discussing projects, how to be successful in being a project leader, etc. This was an important two days because we are building a new hospital and all of the attendees were going to be project leaders throught out this designing and building process. It was interesting that we all sat and listened to him all day yet in the car ride home the four of us heard different items. I think we all interpreted parts of what he said differently. Some of us never heard things he talked about when others had. So I understood what this article talks about.
Communication is very important in every part of your life. I found that the saying What can go wrong will go wrong pretty accurate. It seems like that for me anyway. Law 2 is something I could relate to. If a message can be understood in different ways,
ReplyDeleteit will be understood in just that way which does the most
harm. My boyfriend is very good at joking around, but most of the time I see him as being serious and it usually starts a little argument. He may mean it like that, but I take it the total opposite of what he means.
The part I thought was most interesting was the fact that in general the Air Force stresses communication so much. I was suprised to find that they have to take a writing course to improve their communication. Also after thinking about it a little bit, it is very important to be a good communicator, especially if you were a pilot and you said the wrong cordinates or something like that, it's your life on the line. Law #3 is the one that strikes my attention the most, because of my good friend Chuck. Whenever we talk about football we both always assume what the person means or is going to say next. We are both guilty of doing it. Also the line that says,"we stop listening to what the person actually does say," is so true in many circumstances in everyday life. Many times things can be taken the wrong way because people don't don't listen as much, as they just "hear" others.
ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting and plan on sharing with my co-workers. I had not heard of Osmo Wiio before reading this article. Law 2 is the one that stands out for me the most. At work when someone calls to stop service that request seems simple. There are questions that need to be asked to clarify exactly what the customer is requesting. Is this a stop were they are moving into a different service territory? This request could be a transfer of service from one home to another home. So really the request is a stop and start of service. Maybe the service needs to be completely removed because the building is getting torn down. Communication is very important and asking the right questions, listening to the full response helps me to understand what the customer is requesting to be done. There are so many times when someone will interupt when I am speaking so that they can finish the sentence or thought and that was not the direction I was headed.
ReplyDeleteI read and reread this article a couple of times. It holds so many truths to life and communication. I have to say that I applaud the Air Force for having such strict communication requirements. I think that it is definitely a necessity and with what “they” are doing, very important. I also have to be honest in saying that I live my life by Murphy’s Laws; some days I think they were written about me and lightened up for the rest of the world. The one Law that I liked a lot was number four. It reminds me so much of my children’s elementary school librarian, now turned teacher. She is so great with kids, and is very much on their level. I used to spend a lot of time in school when the kids were younger and I spent a lot of time with her. When kids were telling her a story and they would start to get long winded she would say “I am losing interest, get to the point.” It was never in a harsh tone, but sometimes young ones get rattling on, well we all do. The kids responded very well to this, got to the point, and she responded to the story in kind. I always thought this was great, letting them know that you lose someone along the way and they stop paying attention.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is a very important skill. I think miscommunication happens all too often. I work with my mother at a family owned restaurant and let me tell you we have some miscommunications. We all assume that something is going to be done such as putting on a roast because the cook should know that we need one. Sometimes he puts one on and other times it seems like he isn’t listening or something. Mom can tell me something that should be simple and the next thing I know I am confused because she puts in so much useless information. Communication is very important and I don’t think people understand that. It is a skill that is hard to get a grasp on without a lot of work, especially on the listening end.
ReplyDeleteIf a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just the way which does the most harm. This surprised me because it reminds me of an argument I once had with my younger brother. I gave a friend, who was also my brother’s friend, a Christmas card which I wrote, “For what it’s worth, Merry Christmas.” Somehow, my friend and my brother interpreted it as, “Thanks for nothing.” Of course, I later had to apologize and explain myself to them.
ReplyDeleteLaw 4 of the article is what amused me the most. My husband was just telling me the other day, about how when I have something to tell him, I would go on and on with too much information. Luckily, he’s patient enough and willing to hear me though, most of the time. Then at the end, he would tell me that there was some information that could have been left out.
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to the too much information problem with communication. I often find this happening. Especially with my boyfriend and I when we communicate. He often asks me if I could please just get to the point as he doesn't need to know all the details, or is getting bored listening to what I am saying. I find when I talk to my mother it is the same way. I sometimes feel I already know what she is going to say by the end of it, and wonder why she felt the need to tell me all the other things she did.
ReplyDeleteI like Murphy's Laws better I am more familiar with them. I can think of times when I have thought that I knew what a person was trying to say and had it totally wrong from what was the intent. Such was the time they told the employees to clean up the work floor,so we all went about picking up materials and paper from the ground. The supervisor meant we were to get down on the floor and use acetone and remove all marks and stuck on stuff from the concrete floor. This was all because our customers from Japan were coming and they had made the comment about how our floors were a shame and no plant of theirs' would be allowed to get that way.Well let me tell you stuff that has been walked on and ground in doesn't come off very easily. The rubbing and scrubbing caused the paint to be removed in spots and lighter colored in others and then the Japan company commented on the splotched appearance of the floor. The next time they had scheduled a visit 3/4 of the workforce just took employee managed time-off and when home. The floor now looked splotched and stuck with stuff and the supervisors didn't tell us what the customer had to say. We also never had to clean the floors again.
ReplyDeleteThe part of the article that I agreed with the most was Law 4. The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed. I had a great example of this just last week.
ReplyDeleteOn Saturday one of our customers called and asked if we had upper strut mounts for a car they had in the shop. I looked it up and found that there were none available in our system. I called the customer back and told them that I didn't have anything in the store, but I would check with some of our other venders to see if I could find anything. So I called around and found a company in the Twin Cities that had the driver side upper mount but no passenger side upper mount. I then called our Commercial Account Manager and told him that Sears was looking for these mounts, and I told him that I only found the one in the cities and since I was going to be gone on Monday that he would have to order them. I also told him I would leave him a note of what I had found. Well he understood the note as I had ordered them. So on Wednesday the customer called wondering where their mounts were and I had to tell them that we were having trouble locating them and that we would have to get them straight from the dealer. They understood and we had them the next day from the local dealer.
That is why I am a firm believer in what ever can go wrong will go wrong and too much communication can be a bad thing.
Hi Team, My son was in the Air Force for eight years, so I am somewhat familiar with the procedures of that branch of the military. However, I did find the article very interesting, and informative. The two laws that I totally related to were numbers 3&4. For #3, I have a family member that stops listening to what is being said and anticipates what is going to be said next. This leads to misunderstandings and misinformation. Not to mention that this is rude, it also drives me NUTS! When I try to explain to this family member what they are doing they become very offensive. This is where I just let them have their say, don't interrupt and somewhat tuned them out. And what I related to in Law #4 was that too much information is just as ineffective as too little. I also believe in "keeping it simple." I hate when people use glorified words to get their point across. Most messeages can be stated very simply and be just as effective. Using big words when not necessary does not necessarily mean that you are intelligent.
ReplyDeleteThe part of the article that interested me the most was about the education that is offered in the Air Force. I never knew that the Air Force offered those types of classes and knowledge to recruits. Also having all personal complete a writing course, that was another interesting point. I have been involved with the fourth law many times working with the kids I teach. I have found that by not putting extra words into a command they succeed more often. It is important that I get the point across what they need to do but with a low brain function that is hard. I have found that sign language is a good alternative to using words because it usually is just one motion. Also, I have found by saying one small phrase or word the kids will understand what I would like them to do. I really liked the quote “Keep it Simple,” because that’s what works for me in most situations.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article to read! As I read through the different laws, I was able to associate my own life experiences in with each and every law written. Like Lai Lee, Law 4 is, in my opinion, a law that everyone should consider in their everyday lives when communicating with anyone. I have been in the sales field for many years and there is a phrase commonly used, KISS, which stood for “keep it simple stupid”. I never agreed with the later part of that phrase, but I agree 100% when it comes to keeping it simple. I do not believe in wasting my time or anyone else’s so getting to the point and not overloading the conversation is what made me so successful in the business. I’m getting a lot of useful information from this class and feel confident about how it has been a positive effect on me personally. My skills have improved and I’ve noticed that it makes life a little less stressful when I communicate effectively.
ReplyDeleteI think we all know how important communication is. I strongly agree with "keep it simple." I work for a B2B company and have to be short and sweet in my conversations but also have to grab their attention to get that person to listen. When it comes to communicating I have to be as effective as possible everyday at work. If I am not clear and to the point, I risk the chance of losing a potential client. Another important part on my half is being a good listener to be able to respond accordingly. Communication is a two way street but I feel it is very important to have a good idea of ways to communicate with people. I know I am able to catch on very quickly to most demographics when communicating and how to present what I am trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very hard to keep myself attracted to. I had to read it twice to fully understand what it was about. After comprehending it I discovered law 1 to stick out at me. The reason being that my parents are divorced and my mom has told me to make sure that in your relationship to communicate with one another because that is one thing that her and my dad did not do very well throughout their marriage and it was a part of their reason to separate. I do agree with her 100% because my boyfriend and I have been doing a long distant relationship for 3 years and I think one thing that has kept us together is the communicating we do. He works during the day so we talk at night and EVERY night we talk about what each of us had done that day and everything that has happened in our life that day. I think that is huge in a relationship.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very good thing that the air force has such strong emphasis on communications. Communication in any branch of the military is very important. It is important because in the military you are dealing with weapons, airplanes, etc. I think that the air force is right on in what they are saying in this article! In 1.1 it stuck out to me that "If communication can fail, it will". This is so true. The other day I was talking to my friend over text message about something and he took it in a completely different way then I had meant it! The communication failed. He kind of got upset and I then had to call him and explain to him what I had meant. the hard thing is not always knowing what the other person means when they are text messaging eachother. This was a very good, informative, and interesting article!
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